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Community backlash is mounting ahead of a pivotal decision this month on the fate of Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins.
The Shelby County Commission is set Wednesday to discuss whether to vote Jan. 13 for a resolution of “no confidence” in the school board after several members launched an effort last month to oust Feagins, who began in the role April 1 after a prolonged search.
A second resolution on the commission’s agenda would place a 90-day hold on the county’s recent $33 million allocation toward building a long-anticipated high school in the city’s Frayser community.
A parent advocacy group, meanwhile, has called on Feagins and the school board to work out their differences in private, while a prominent Memphis lawmaker says he is pursuing his own meeting with the board to “reset the conversation.”
The activity comes ahead of a Jan. 15 school board work session in which the board will revisit the case against Feagins, which Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman laid out in a resolution to terminate Feagins’ contract.
Feagins has forcefully denied any wrongdoing, and was expected to submit written responses to the board on Monday. Any vote to oust Feagins would need to happen at a board business meeting. The next one is set for Jan. 21.
At its December meeting, the board voted 5-4 to push its decision on Feagins to this month. Dorse-Coleman cast the deciding vote, saying she wanted to “keep it fair” and allow more time to review the facts.
The resolution contends that Feagins has been dishonest and difficult to communicate with, and that she mishandled or misrepresented district finances on three occasions.
Conflict draws in state officials
The drama in Memphis-Shelby County Schools has gotten the attention of state officials, too.
Rep. Mark White, longtime chairman of a House education committee in the state legislature, is seeking to meet this week with the entire school board and several other state lawmakers from Memphis.
“We need to dial down the temperature,” said the Memphis Republican. “There’s a lot of people in our community who are very upset by this situation.”
White said poor working relationships between Feagins and certain board members are distracting all of them from more important academic challenges facing Tennessee’s largest school system, such as low reading scores, chronic absenteeism, a high dropout rate, and a critical need for stronger workforce development in the Mid-South.
He said he’s not ready to introduce legislation that he drafted last year to give Gov. Bill Lee’s administration the power to appoint up to six new members to the nine-member Memphis board. However, that avenue remains an option, White said.
“It took 18 months to find this superintendent, and now some board members want to let her go while she’s still trying to learn the ropes and drinking from a fire hose,” White said. “You don’t disrupt an entire community and call a meeting to dismiss your superintendent without a clear definition of the grievances.”
Feagins has hired Memphis lawyer Alan Crone to represent her in the dispute, while the board has retained Robert Spence, another local attorney.
Nearly a year ago, the board voted to hire Feagins away from a leadership position at the Detroit Public Schools Community District, making her the first outside leader to direct Tennessee’s largest school system since it was created through a merger a decade ago.
According to her contract, she must be paid a severance of $487,500 if the board terminates her contract without cause. However, Dorse-Coleman has said the claims by her and several other board members justify a termination, meaning that Feagins would not receive a severance package.
Funding for new Frayser high school at risk
The “no confidence” resolution before the county body that oversees local funding for public schools is co-sponsored by Commissioners Amber Mills and Erika Sugarman. Mills is the sole sponsor so far of the second resolution, to withhold millions of dollars approved on Dec. 16 toward the $112 million cost of building a new high school.
“Firing a superintendent, no matter who they are, at the beginning of a critical project leaves the County Commissioners with no confidence … regarding the new construction of the Frayser High School and other actions,” the first resolution reads.
Mills said the resolutions are her attempt to make the school board think deeply before moving ahead with an ouster attempt that she said has “blindsided our whole community.” Freezing funding for a new Frayser school, she added, would be “just a pause” as the commission seeks “clear direction and accountability from school district leaders.”
“A lot of people love Dr. Feagins and are happy that she’s making changes,” Mills said.
School board member Stephanie Love, who voted against postponing the termination vote, said Monday she’s disappointed that the county commission has gotten involved. She said Mills, whose district overlaps Love’s, has not contacted her to discuss the matter.
“It’s unfortunate that another elected body would consider holding off on building a new school in my district,” she told Chalkbeat. “Kids are the most important thing to me.”
Love added: “I will vote my conscience (on Feagins’ future). We are not going to make everybody happy. The public is unaware of the things we have to deal with behind closed doors.”
Dorse-Coleman, the board chair, did not respond Monday to Chalkbeat’s questions about community backlash. But in a Dec. 26 statement, she said she and other board members have tried sharing their concerns with Feagins privately without success.
“She has a pattern and practice of not providing critical information and instead misinforming the Board Members,” Dorse-Coleman said. “I don’t think this is something we can overcome.”
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
